Review

Big Foot

A Change in Soft-Dollar Rules
Would KO Tiny Research Shops

SOME STOCK ANALYSTS WERE HOLLERING louder than Iowa caucus loser Howard Dean last week at a proposal to choke off commission payments to research shops outside of brokerage firms. The controversy arose when the trade association of U.S. mutual-fund managers -- the Investment Company Institute -- urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to forbid money managers from paying an independent analyst with "soft...